Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - review

Amy Chua grew up in the US as the daughter of Chinese parents. In many ways her upbringing sounds tough: she and her sisters had to speak Chinese at home and for every English word they let slip, they'd be hit with chopsticks. They practised music and maths every day. They were expected to get perfect grades - "for us, getting an A-minus was unthinkable". Was this horrible?

No, she says, it gave her strength. Now she is extremely exacting with her own children. Is this a good thing? It depends what you want - of course. But it does make you think about our slack Western ways.